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Teach yourself Esperanto (Book / Cassette)

by Rope, July 31, 2007

Messages: 19

Language: English

Rope (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 10:03:46 AM

In advance, sorry for posting this request.

I have been using the Teach yourself Esperanto book (J Cresswell & J Hartley), this is a great book that I have found to be a good text for a novice.
My problem is trying to find the Cassette that went with this book.

I have this morning spoken to the publisher who has not held the book / cassette since 1984.

I have asked who holds the copywrite for the Cassette, and I am told they have no record of the copywrite on said cassette.

Does anyone on Lernu know where I can buy a used copy of the cassette?

This would be most helpfull for my Esperanto studies.

richardhall (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 10:30:52 AM

Don't be sorry - it's a reasonable question!
I'm sorry that I can't help. I've seen 2nd hand copies of TYE on Abebooks and the like, but I don't recall seeing a cassette. But if the publishers aren't interested in the copyright, perhaps if we can track down a copy we could get it put onto CD? There must be several of us who'd be interested.

Rope (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 10:40:15 AM

richardhall:Don't be sorry - it's a reasonable question!
I'm sorry that I can't help. I've seen 2nd hand copies of TYE on Abebooks and the like, but I don't recall seeing a cassette. But if the publishers aren't interested in the copyright, perhaps if we can track down a copy we could get it put onto CD? There must be several of us who'd be interested.
Saluton Richard, thanks for the reply.
I just missed out on a Book / Cassette on Ebay.
I do not know if the buyer was a Lernu user, it would be a great help for lerners like me.

erinja (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 2:54:11 PM

This Australian online shop seems to sell the cassette, although I don't know if they actually have it in stock.

http://www.soundbooks.com.au/continental/teachyour...

Miland (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 4:14:11 PM

According to Don Harlow, the cassette is "optional, unnecessary, and spoken by Esperantists with strong British accents", which is why I have never tried to obtain it. There are other and better pronunciation aids, like this excellent website, John Wells' Pronunciation CD, and the CDs accompanying his course Jen Nia Mondo.

Miland (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 4:16:05 PM

P.S. In the UK you can obtain these online from the EAB at the website
http://www.esperanto-gb.org/eab/bookshop.htm

erinja (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 5:16:01 PM

I find pronunciation to be an ever-present issue with Esperanto learning materials. I knew a very good, kind woman who shall remain unnamed, who did the audio recordings for some online Esperanto course, whose name I have forgotten. I was surprised with I heard about it, and a little disturbed, because her accent was so strong. I felt a little sorry for the students getting the course. It's important for beginners to familiarize themselves with all kinds of Esperanto accents but I think it's perhaps not the best thing for a beginner's tape, teaching pronunciation, to give the students a strong American/British/whatever accent.

mnlg (User's profile) July 31, 2007, 10:43:24 PM

waxle:I mean, it's difficult to "esperantevangelize" people when there's not really a standard for speech.
There is a standard. In the 16 rules, if I am not mistaken, Z lays out enough examples to know how to pronounce the letters correctly. Actually if there's a language without a clear standard for speech, this is English ridulo.gif

erinja (User's profile) August 1, 2007, 12:21:09 AM

English does have a standard, it just varies by country. I would say it's "American Broadcast English" for the US, Received Pronunciation for most of the rest of the world. I assume Canada also has a Canadian version of American Broadcast English - some kind of widely used accent, especially for TV, that makes someone's geographic origin unclear.

For Esperanto, Zamenhof suggested that Italian was a good model for pronunciation.

Within the Esperanto community, Italians and Hungarians are considered to have good accents. English speakers, French speakers, and Danes are widely thought to have poor accents. There are exceptions to all of these generally held beliefs, of course. But you could listen to Italian radio's Esperanto broadcasts

http://www.international.rai.it/radio/multilingue/...

Read the Zamenhof rules, like mnlg suggested. For English speakers in particular, try hard to get the rolled r. Non-English speakers often cannot even hear the presence of an American r in an Esperanto word (at least, this was told to me by a French person). Resist the temptation to make vowels into dipthongs. It's "salono", not "salouxnoux"; "hordeo", not "hordejo". Pronounce all syllables fully and don't let them fall into the weak unstressed schwa that is the American accent - it's parolas, not p'rolauxs.

And finally - relax! Lots of people, including me, learned with no sound files whatsoever, only words on a printed page, and still manage to be understood just fine.

It takes a pretty thick accent to render someone completely non-understandable. If you end up with a Spanish accent, you should be understood perfectly by most people. If you end up speaking just like Arono, you'll be understood perfectly. The consonants are easy, coming from English. Just pay attention to your R's and your vowels, and you'll do just fine.

Kwekubo (User's profile) August 1, 2007, 12:54:53 AM

Try the EAB's pronunciation CD (this can be ordered through the EAB bookshop if you like, but is also available online for free).

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